Materials for cutting tool inserts fall into several well-known categories. These include high speed steels, cast alloys of cobalt and chromium, sintered carbides and ceramic materials such as alumina with the corundum crystal structure, and even diamonds. Each material has an advantage depending upon the particular application. Some are much more expensive than others. High speed steel has the greatest resistance to shock of all the materials. For this and other reasons, it is the preferred cutting material for many applications. Because of their resistance to wear, cast alloys and sintered carbides often cost less per piece machined than the steels.
Ceramic materials are used in especially difficult applications. They have high hardness, chemical inertness and wear resistance even at elevated temperatures. This makes them useful, for example, for cutting cast iron and hardened steel at high cutting speeds. The inertness prevents welding of the tool insert to the metal being machined at the temperatures created by machining. Generally, however, ceramic tool inserts cannot be used in heavy interrupted cuts. Also, at slower machining speeds, tool loads are markedly higher and ceramic tools are likely to chip or fracture because of their lower tensile strength and toughness.
Tougher ceramic tools have been developed. These may comprise the addition of a second ceramic phase. Each phase is comprised of equiaxed grains as a result of combining equiaxed powders prior to hot pressing to form the tool insert. The addition of a second equiaxed phase increases toughness to some extent and provides a wear resistant tool insert.
Ceramic cutting tools made of alumina-titanium carbide composites have been successful in machining ferrous and non-ferrous alloys. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,708. These ceramic composites possess excellent high temperature mechanical strength and chemical wear resistance which are needed for superior performance in metal cutting. The utility of the material may be limited by its low fracture toughness in applications where tools tend to fail by fracture, say, in milling or high speed roughing.
Toughness of equiaxed ceramic composites is known to increase with increasing volume of the second phase up to a maximum that depends upon the particular phases and generally reaching a maximum between 30 and 40 volume percent of the second phase. Fracture toughness of ceramic composites may be further increased by altering the morphology or shape of the second phase. It has been shown by Faber and Evans, in "Crack Deflection Processes - I. Theory," ACTA METALL., Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 565-576 (1983) that the fracture toughness of certain ceramic composites can be increased by as much as four times by using rod-shaped second phases. The shape of the second phase is characterized by its aspect ratio (length to diameter ratio).
A composition disclosed in Wei U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,345 comprises the addition of silicon carbide whiskers to an alumina matrix to increase fracture toughness. It is explained in the Wei patent that the improved fracture toughness and resistance to slow crack growth is the result of energy spent in pulling whiskers out of the matrix. It is also pointed out in the Wei patent that not all matrix compositions are toughened by the addition of silicon carbide whiskers. Selected compositions disclosed in the Wei patent are finding use as materials for tool inserts. The tool inserts made with silicon carbide whiskers have limited use. They are very useful for Inconel and other superalloys but have poor service life with steel or cast iron.